Physically, the state is ready to carry out executions again.
State corrections officials said Tuesday that the remodeling of the death chamber at the Nebraska State Penitentiary (left) has been completed.
The electric chair, ruled an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual form of capital punishment by the Nebraska Supreme Court, is now in storage.
Its place has been taken by a lethal injection table, complying with a 2009 law that changed the state's means of execution from electrocution to lethal injection.
"We have the chemicals on order, and that's it. Everything else is prepared," said Bob Houston, director of the Nebraska Department of Corrections. Nebraska had been without a legal means to carry out the death penalty since the February 2008 ruling on the chair. The last person executed by the state was Robert Williams, who killed 3 women. He was electrocuted in 1997.
It's not likely that a lethal-injection execution will occur soon.
Jill Francke, statewide coordinator for Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, said any death-row inmate scheduled for execution would have legal appeals to file. Her group, she said, will challenge the new lethal injection law.
Observers have said the legal challenges could delay any execution for a year or more.
"This doesn't too dramatically change the situation from yesterday," Francke said.
She said her group was encouraged that more state senators were questioning the cost of capital punishment this spring. Efforts to repeal the death penalty, however, failed.
The Attorney General's Office has said it would seek an execution date for Carey Dean Moore, 52, who was convicted in 1980 for the murders of 2 Omaha cabdrivers.
His case is the oldest among the 12 men on death row. Moore came within 6 days of dying in the electric chair in 2007, when the Nebraska Supreme Court canceled the execution to examine whether electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment.
Houston said state officials consulted with Missouri, Indiana and Texas in designing the new death chamber.
He said members of the execution team have already done some training and would step that up once an execution was scheduled.
There are 2 members of the "IV team" who administer the lethal combination of 3 drugs, and at least 8 members of an "escort'' team.
Houston said nearly 1/2 the execution team has been involved in executions before.
"It's a very experienced group that is carrying this out, although the method is new to us."
Source: Omaha World-Herald, July 1, 2010
